Police Union Votes 'No Confidence' In Windsor Police Chief

Members of the Windsor police and dispatchers union voted overwhelmingly against Police Chief Donald Melanson in a no confidence vote on Monday and Tuesday. (Town of Windsor)

Windsor Police Chief Donald Melanson lost a no-confidence vote over his leadership by a 6 to 1 margin, according to the Windsor Police Department Employees Association.

The vote by the 52 member-police union and eight-member dispatchers’ union was held on Monday and Tuesday. Of the 44 total votes cast, 38 voted no confidence and six voted that they do have confidence in the chief’s leadership.

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In an e-mail to the town council and Town Manager Peter Souza sent Wednesday morning, union officials said that they “feel the results speak for themselves.”

Officials said they also have confidence that the town council would review the concerns that the union sent them in an email last week in conjunction with the outcome of the vote and “take the proper action to ensure the Police Department can function at a high level, so we can continue to serve the citizens of Windsor.”

The concerns about Melanson outlined in the memo prior to the vote included; credibility and truthfulness; claims of a vindictive and threatening style of leadership; incompetence and illegal or improper advice, direction or application of the law; and morale at an all-time low.

Melanson said Wednesday that he had not seen the results of the vote, but added that he “looked forward to working with the unions and the town manager to understand the issues and working together to resolve them.”

Souza had been meeting with members of the department for several months to discuss those concerns, and following allegations that Melanson had deleted or altered a dashcam video recorded at a traffic accident in February, he ordered an independent review of Melanson’s actions related to the video. A resident had filed a complaint against the officer who investigated the accident.

The review found that he did not alter or delete the video and that he did not violate department policies or state statutes. The review did suggest that the department review and revise its retention policies.

The review also found that the officer who investigated the accident made disparaging remarks about the resident who filed the complaint against him and those remarks were picked up on a body cam worn by another officer with him.

The union, however, claimed that the review left out important details from interviews with officers that could have led to a different conclusion, and should have found that he violated several department codes of conduct.

“We didn’t really want to go forward [with the vote of no confidence],” Windsor Police Sgt. and union President Anthony Valenti said Wednesday. “But we felt that the town hasn’t handled it properly.”

Souza said in an email Wednesday that “a process has been established to further determine, assess and evaluate the issues raised.”

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Souza said that the process, which has been communicated to employees, will include a third-party consultant to interview supervisors, officers and other department employees to better understand concerns.

Members of the two unions also held a vote of no-confidence of Capt. Thomas LePore, with 31 voting that they had no confidence and 13 voting that they do have confidence in his leadership.